Living in a war zone

December 30: We find ourselves in the middle of a country that is again on the verge of war. I suppose you could say Israel has been in a constant state of war since its birth sixty years ago. Sometimes it’s quite active. Sometimes it’s less so. The truce with Hamas ended on the 19th of this month, and Hamas started launching Qassam rockets from Gaza into Israel shortly thereafter, about 180 rockets since this recent violence began. Three civilians and a soldier have been killed from the Hamas rockets. The situation escalated considerably when Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign that so far has resulted in more than 375 Palestinian deaths (60 of whom the U.N. indicates were civilians) and hundreds wounded. We hear that a ground assault by the Israelis is imminent with tanks situated on the Gaza border. (We saw several such tanks making their way down south during our drive through the Negev yesterday.) Now I understand how it is that Israelis continue going about their business during times of unrest. Aside from the heavy hearts many Israelis walk around with because of the recent violence, the only real noticeable difference we’ve seen since this all began a few days ago has been heightened security. On our way to the kibbutz on Sunday, the taxi driver told us that the bus station was closed because of a bomb scare. I’m sure someone left their backpack or other bag accidentally, but such things lead to a complete evacuation/lock down/you name it.

And today we saw what most American Jews—or any tourists for that matter—rarely, if ever, see on a trip to Israel. We took an informal tour of the separation wall between Jerusalem and the West Bank. That’s not quite the right description of the wall, since the situation is far more complicated than this. The separation wall doesn’t seem to follow any rational line (i.e., the Green Line that separated Israel from its neighbors after the partition and the 1948 war or Jerusalem’s existing municipal boundaries established after the 1967 war). In some places it follows the Jerusalem municipal border; in other places Israel has pushed farther into the West Bank. The wall cut many Palestinian neighborhoods in half. It separated people from the land they used to farm. These folks still have the legal right to their agricultural land, but they have no way to reach it in some cases (if they have no papers allowing them to move to the other side of the wall, for example) and in other cases would have to spend hours to get there and then have no one to help them work the land. The wall separated families from their neighbors, from the rest of their family, from the institutions they’ve spent decades using, worshipping in, and relying upon. A five minute walk to one’s brother’s house has turned into an hour and a half plus journey, provided they have the right papers that allow them to even take the journey.

I’m not saying the wall isn’t necessary. I can’t say I’m informed enough to know what the best solution is to the Hamas attacks or what the best approach is to establishing a Palestinian state. For security purposes, it could be a separation wall. But, if so, it should account for neighborhoods, families, and social movement so as not to destroy people’s lives, livelihoods, and relational connections. If it doesn’t, people are left dejected, angry, isolated, and vengeful, leading to the kind of terror we see today. How could we expect anything different? It’s similar to prisons. Either you think a prison should include a rehabilitative component to help people find a better and lawful way to live once they’re released back into society. Or you think it should be purely punitive, which in my opinion leaves people worse off and better prepared to commit more crimes, often more egregious crimes. Perhaps the Israeli government thinks that by destroying Palestinian neighborhoods the residents will move elsewhere. But how can they? They don’t have the means to do so. Instead, they stay and become embittered.

The tour we took was put together by Maya, a friend of Jeremy’s brother, Josh. Maya works for an organization called B’Tselem, which promotes human rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We had dinner with Maya, her husband Daniel, and their son Tomo the other night, and Maya offered to put together a short tour for us of the separation wall. So Jeremy, Jonah, and I met Maya and two of her colleagues this morning to first learn about the building of the wall. Then we went with Maya, another colleague of hers, and a driver to tour around the separation wall. We went first to the wall near the Bethlehem checkpoint. Here you can see a common situation—houses that abut the wall on the Israel side (for lack of a better description, I’ll call it the “Israel side” and the “West Bank”) and are completely cut off from their Palestinian neighbors. We tried to get past the checkpoint to see the conditions on the other side of the wall, but the guard indicated that, because of the recent unrest, vehicle access is severely restricted. Our strike against us was that we were in a vehicle that carried more than six passengers.

Leaving this checkpoint, we saw the separation wall in another part of Jerusalem that’s a fence rather than a wall. The Jewish settlement—Har Homa—that’s been established here is beautiful. It was the site of much violence during the Second Intifada in the earlier part of the decade, so the housing isn’t all occupied (presumably due to fears about living there). Here, we saw the home of a Palestinian family that used to live a five minute walk to the Arab village of Beit Zahor. Now it takes the family one and a half hours and 150 shekels (roughly $40) to get to Beit Zahor. The kids of the family stay with another family in Beit Zahor so they can attend school, since they presumably don’t have easy access to a school on their side of the wall. The family has no social life because they’re the only Palestinian house left on the Israel side of the wall.

More common, however, is the situation we saw in Abu Dis, an Arab village that was virtually dissected in half by the separation wall. In this village, the wall zigzags down streets, cutting residents from their local mosque, the community center for old people, and, again, family and friends. Seeing the wall is more eye opening than I even assumed it would be. To see how the separation wall’s path has destroyed people’s lives makes the reality on the ground here a bit easier to get my head around.

On our ride to Abu Dis, we drove through the Mount of Olives, where Jews have been buried for thousands of years. It’s considered the world’s oldest continually used cemetery. Given my fascination with cemeteries, this was near the top of my list of places to visit in Jerusalem. In the streets we saw rocks and other debris from the daily rioting that has taken place since the escalated violence in and around Gaza. This basically put the kibosh on my plan to do a walking tour of the Mount of Olives during Jonah’s nap today. Along with visiting the Temple Mount, it was the last thing on my list that I really wanted to do before we left. Maya and her colleagues said it wouldn’t be a good idea for me to do it right now because of the situation. Exploring on my own, winding my way through the rows of graves up on the Mount of Olives probably wouldn’t be the safest thing for me to do. Su confirmed this. Dang. Dang. Dang. People are losing their lives, have little if any freedom of movement, live in absolute squalor, and are deprived of basic needs, so I can’t say that I feel too sorry for myself in the context of the conflict here.

We leave in two days. I can’t believe it!! I’m really quite sad about it. This is the first place we’ve been that I really didn’t want to leave. Jeremy feels the same way. We’ve felt ready to leave each place before for one reason or another. Weather was always a big factor certainly. But we also felt ready for a new adventure. Despite the recent rain here, it feels like there’s still so much more to explore. We’ve also really loved being able to spend so much time with Su, Ofra, and Micha. It’s been wonderful to have this time with them. And we’ve managed to have a fairly busy social life here. It’s felt much more like we settled somewhere permanently than our previous stays have felt.

Well, returning to my account of our daily life here… On Monday of last week, Jonah and I met Su at our apartment before hopping a bus to the city center. It was a day for neighborhood touring, which is something I’m always interested in doing. Su is quite the tour guide and comes well equipped with descriptions of the neighborhoods and specific buildings to admire. We started with Mea She’arim, which is a throw back to an Eastern European shtetl of the 1880s. This is where the ultra of the ultra-Orthodox Jews live in Jerusalem, with men donning tall black hats, robe-like jackets, and beards and the women in long, black skirts and head coverings or wigs (many with shaved heads underneath). As you enter a part of the neighborhood, a big sign reads in English and Hebrew: “Groups passing through our neighborhoods seriously offend the residents. Please stop this.” There are posters plastered all over the walls, mostly memorial notices for people who have passed away with information on when the first thirty days of mourning run until, the location of the Shiva, etc. Su and I were the only women in the entire neighborhood in pants and the only non-neighborhood (or similarly religious) folks to be in the area (aside from the two Arab guys who quickly came and left with a few trays of pastries from the bakery). We had no such excuse, but no one seemed to notice us or at least let us know we were being noticed.

In addition to Mea She’arim, we wandered through a couple of other neighborhoods along the edges of Morasha and Migrash Harusim. Highlights included beautiful homes, the very interesting, circular-shaped Ethiopian Church (built between 1896 and 1904), Ben Yehuda’s house (where he did much work to revive the Hebrew language), a house where the Israeli poet Rachel once lived while penning love poems, the original Hadassah Hospital, the late-19th-century Ticho House (former home of an Austrian-born ophthalmologist who treated poor Palestinian Arabs and his artist wife—now a museum and café where we had an amazing lunch), and a neighborhood playground where Jonah went through his first enclosed slide (and loved it!).

That night we celebrated the second night of Hanukkah. Because we’d gotten home so late from Tel Aviv the night before and we didn’t yet have candles, we lit matches as stand-ins for candles and called it a night. Well, Jonah LOVED seeing us light the hanukkiah on the second night. (Every morning during Hanukkah he asked for the candles and for us to “light it, light it”.) He also liked opening his gift. We’re doing one small gift each night. The first night we did gifts, Jonah opened one of the ones that Su and Ofra gave him. As we were helping him unwrap it, he did his happy dance where he moves from one foot to the next in a small march. It was a fabulous dreidel that lights up when you spin the bottom off of it. Along with Raul Kitty Mouse (I got it wrong in the last posting…it’s not Raul Mouse Kitty), the new dreidel is his prized possession. These two things he carries with him in the trunk of his car unless we’re taking it to the playground. Jonah is also getting into the paper wrapping ripping spirit. At first he didn’t know what to do with the paper. Maybe the ball of paper was the gift. But then Jeremy showed him how to rip the paper, and he started to get the hang of it.

The next day, Jeremy, Jonah, and I took a tour of the Western Wall excavations and tunnel in the Old City of Jerusalem. This tour is quite controversial, several people we know unwilling to go there (including Su and Jeremy’s graduate student Natan) because of the political statement that was made when the tours opened under one of the holiest Muslim sites in the world. The tunnel is a 1,600 foot passage that follows the northern extension of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount on which the First and Second Temples were once located and on which the Dome of the Rock is now located. From an archaeological perspective, it was a fascinating tour. The extensiveness of the remains and sheer size of some of the rocks in the wall were mind boggling. According to our tour guide, one stone in the wall weighs over 6,000 tons (I think that’s the number she gave) and cannot be moved by any modern-day technology. We also saw an aqueduct from the immediately-post-Maccabee time (just before the beginning of the Common Era). We saw the spot that is considered to be the closest Western Wall location to the holy of holies, where the high priest from the First and Second Temple days used to meet with god in the temple once a year to ask for forgiveness for the sins of the Jews. Several religious women were praying at this particular spot and other places along the excavated wall as well.

In addition to the tidbit of information about modern technology’s inability to move one of the rocks of the size found in the wall, several of our guide’s comments were questionable. Let’s just say the propaganda was quite thick. Our tour guide indicated that it was god who destroyed the First and Second Temples (rather than the Romans) because “he” was mad at the Jews. This can be explained by the fact that our tour guide was religious. She also indicated that the Mamluks built houses along the Western Wall about 800 years ago, leaving only the plaza we see today with open access to the wall. If I’m not mistaken, Israeli soldiers actually flattened many Arab-owned homes after the 1967 war in order to create the plaza. This was not a plaza left behind by the Mamluks.

While Jonah napped, I went shopping along the main drag of our neighborhood, Emek Refaim. I bought three necklaces and a chamseh charm for my bracelet—all for under $100—as Jeremy’s Hanukkah gift to me. ;) In the afternoon, Jonah and I took his little car to the playground, where we were among the only brave souls to endure the elements of nature. It was frigid and windy, but Jonah was happy as could be riding his little car around outside. The next morning he picked up his car and said, “Carry car paygown.”

On Wednesday, I had planned for us to go to the science museum because it was supposed to be a cold, rainy day. Two things threw a wrench into this plan. First, Jonah had a very hard time going to sleep the night before, taking well over an hour of me going in and out of his room and finally having him fall asleep on me before I put him in his crib. Then he decided to wake up at 4:30 am and only sleep when I held him. Mommy was not a happy camper… Second, it wasn’t raining when we got up but was instead just super windy. Only a light drizzle came that morning and only for a very brief period. So a quick change of plans sent us to Mt. Scopus, home to Hebrew University, Hadassah Hospital, and the old British war cemetery from World War I. During the time of Israel’s independence in 1948 and the end of the Six Day War in 1967, Mt. Scopus was located in Jordan. It came under Israel’s control following the war (as did all of East Jerusalem and the West Bank) after the country decimated the armies of Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. It was during this war that Israel also captured the Golan Heights from Syria and the entire Sinai desert and Gaza Strip from Egypt.

Jonah and I took a 30-minute bus ride to Mt. Scopus, during which we passed through Mea She’arim and learned what it is that the black-hat Jews do when it rains—put a plastic bag on their hats. They looked like a bunch of men wearing shower caps. Our main task for the morning was getting to the hospital, where we had to drop off a gift for the head doctor of the rehabilitation unit who had treated the paraplegic son of a family back in Lindos. We’d brought the bottle of liquor for the family to give the doctor but had gotten in touch with them the night before they were leaving the country to return to Greece, so I’d said that we would take it to the doctor ourselves. Jonah and I made a little trip out of it by taking a quick look into the British war cemetery and, after the gift drop, a stroll around Hebrew University. It was not so easy to get permission to walk around the campus. Two different people inquired as to my purpose as I went through the process of getting a visitor’s pass and seemed quite surprised that I just wanted to walk around and see the campus. Thankfully, my cute Jonah makes me seem not so scary I guess, so they let us in. The part of the campus we saw was quite lovely with the same Jerusalem stone pathways and buildings you find all over the city. We strolled along the interior pathway, following various cats we found around and playing by a water memorial. Then back on the bus home for lunch.

On Thursday, Jonah and I headed to the science museum because it was raining, cold, and unpleasant outside. It was apparent the weather was not going to clear up at all. Although the museum is geared toward kids older than Jonah, our little guy dove right in with the big kids. He pushed his way past them, eager to get to the various wheels to turn, balls to throw, and buttons to push. He seems to have few fears, so he led the way through the museum with me in tow. One exhibit at the museum is a small pit that turns, and kids get inside and throw a few balls around. When Jonah saw this, he practically dove head first into the pit. And within about five minutes, he had all three balls in his hands despite the fact that there were several other kids in the pit as well, all of them older than Jonah. Jonah also loved riding the glass elevator up and down. From the museum, it was home for lunch with Jeremy. I went to Ben Yehuda Street to do a little shopping during Jonah’s nap. That night we had a great dinner out and visit at our house with our friends Anne and Billy who were visiting from D.C.

On Friday, we had a tour scheduled of the City of David, which is right outside the southern wall of the Old City in Jerusalem. It’s the oldest part of Jerusalem, claimed to be the location of the Canaanite settlement captured by King David 3,000 years ago. Su gave us information on an organization that provides an alternative tour of the City of David and neighboring Palestinian Arab village of Silwan. The three of us started the tour with the group, but Jeremy ended up having to take Jonah home because it was too much talking and not enough walking around. Our tour guide was an archaeologist who talked a lot about the political situation surrounding the City of David excavations and the impact on Silwan. Recently, eighty-eight Palestinian Arab homes were condemned so that the Jewish settlement organization that runs the City of David (Elad), with the help of the Israel antiquities department, can rebuild the garden formerly located next to a palace in the City of David. To me, this is insane. Destroying tons of homes to recreate a garden?

We learned from our guide that there is no legal building taking place in Silwan—either by the local Palestinian Arabs or the Jewish settlers. This means people are living under constant fear that their homes will be demolished. This, of course, will never happen to the settlers homes. But it does happen to the Palestinian Arab homes on a regular basis. We saw some of the most recently created piles of debris. It turns out that people have to pay the government to have their homes demolished or risk being sent to prison. At the end of the tour, we heard from residents of Silwan who are trying to develop a more formal infrastructure for their community, including the equivalent of a town council and such to help assist the residents and deal with government abuses. The residents we spoke to are committed to nonviolence and have gone to the court on several occasions, where they’ve won multiple cases only to have no way to enforce the court orders.

That night, we returned to the progressive synagogue for services. Jonah really liked the singing. Every time there was silence he used his not-so-silent voice to ask for “mo! mo!” Thankfully, Jonah’s cuteness kept people from being irritated at the constant disruptions, even when his little cars went “down hill” on his seat.

On Saturday, we met up with Micha in Jerusalem’s Old City, and we walked on the walls from the Jaffa Gate to the Lion’s Gate above the Christian and Muslim Quarters. It’s definitely one of the most interesting things we’ve done. I felt like we were intruding on people’s private space in some cases, walking right by elderly women hanging their clothes on the drying line. But they smiled and didn’t seem bothered. We saw into the private courtyards of monasteries, the backyards of people’s homes, the playgrounds of schools (which Jonah pointed out left and right, asking to go to the “paygown!”), and the streets below. From just past the Damascus gate in the Muslim Quarter, we witnessed a heated argument between a street cleaner and two IDF officers. Micha translated for us. One IDF officer told the guy they were interrogating that he’d break his face if he didn’t settle down. Yikes. We saw different beautiful views of the Old City. We got great views of the Muslim cemetery just outside the eastern wall of the Old City and the Mount of Olives beyond.

The walk along the walls stops at the Lion’s Gate because of restricted access to the Temple Mount. Non-Muslims are only allowed to enter the Temple Mount during restricted hours and from a single entrance by the Kotel (Western Wall of the Second Temple). Jews believe that the Messiah will enter the Temple Mount through the Golden Gate of the Old city. This gate was sealed by the Muslims in the 7th century to deny access to the Temple Mount to non-Muslims, although an alternative theory is that it was sealed to prevent the Jewish Messiah from entering the Temple Mount. Plus, having the Muslim cemetery there would be a problem because the Messiah (who presumably would be a high priest…I think) can’t be around dead people.

We entered the Old City from the Lion’s Gate and walked through a couple of churches on the Via Delarosa, where Jesus is said to have carried his cross to his crucifixion at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. We made our last trip to the Kotel, where Micha and I got yelled at multiple times. First, we were reprimanded for taking pictures (on Shabbat). Then I was scolded for trying to use my cell phone (to call Jeremy who I could not find in the Western Wall plaza). Then Micha tried to light a cigarette and was scolded by the same religious Jew who scolded me about my phone. They have religious observance police strolling the plaza just to catch scofflaws like us it seems. We headed back to our neighborhood from the Old City, where we had lunch before putting Jonah down for his nap.

While Jonah napped, Micha and I took a nice, long walk through German Colony, Bak’a, and over to the Haas Promenade for its gorgeous views of the Old City, neighboring villages, and the separation wall. Before we got out of German Colony, we picked up a coffee at one of the two places open in our neighborhood on Shabbat, where we ran into a woman whom I met the previous day on the City of David tour who teaches at Santa Clara University’s law school and whose husband runs the clinic programs at Stanford’s law school. This is one of those things that makes a person feel some ownership over a neighborhood—running into someone you know at a neighborhood shop. Fabulous to feel this here and to have a connection to the places and people. That night we went to dinner with Maya, Daniel, and Tomo—the friends of Jeremy’s brother, Josh. Tomo is just about Jonah’s age, and the two of them hit it off remarkably well. It was so cute to see them running around together.

On Sunday, we headed back to the kibbutz to stay with Su and Ofra and for Jonah to rekindle his relationship with sweet Mayan and, more importantly, his love affair with the kibbutz playgrounds. After being told the bus station in Jerusalem was closed, we took a taxi all the way to the kibbutz. (Turns out one of the Hamas bombs landed just twenty minutes from the kibbutz.) Micha joined us from Tel Aviv, which was fabulous. We spent the morning at a cool playground we hadn’t visited before with its Noah’s Ark animals for Jonah to climb on, a recorder we found near the slide (which Jonah LOVED blowing into and having Ofra play), and lots of sand in which to dig. We had a fabulous latke lunch. Jonah loved dipping his latkes in the apple sauce. Surprisingly, Jonah took a nap at Su and Ofra’s house, which is highly unusual. He obviously felt very comfortable at their house and with his surroundings because it typically takes him getting used to a place for an entire day and having to sleep a night somewhere before he can take a nap there. We hung out and talked during nap time, while Jeremy had a massage (my gift to him for Hanukkah).

Then more playground in the afternoon. Mayan and her mom, Hila, joined us for that. We drove cars around the play area. Micha and I even drove the little tricycles. Our little creature of habit, Jonah, liked to play with the car that didn’t move due to its broken front tires. He did this last time we visited the kibbutz as well. So as Micha and I raced around the playground, Jonah was stuck in his stationary car, calling out, “Go! Go!” and hoping his car would miraculously take off. No convincing would get him into another vehicle. We walked over to Mayan’s house (a stone’s throw from Su and Ofra’s), where Jonah was in heaven playing with all sorts of new toys. He also liked shutting him and Mayan in her room and cracking up because we were on the outside. Then he’d yell, “Come in! Come in!” and hurry to get someone else in before quickly shutting the door again. We enjoyed a delicious last night of Hanukkah dinner before crashing. Jonah slept through the night peacefully, waking up very briefly around 1 am to chat to himself. Oh, it felt good to not get up in the middle of the night!! (He didn’t wake up last night either. Two nights in a row these days is a dream come true for sleep.)

Yesterday morning we mobilized perhaps a bit earlier than Su and Ofra would have liked (Jonah woke up at 6:15 am, which meant that we were all up at that hour), but it helped get us out the door early for our trip to the northern part of the Negev. The Negev makes up over 60% of Israel’s landmass but is home to only around 10% of the country’s residents. The Negev Desert has fabulous auburn-colored sand. It’s just a beautiful region of the country.

We first headed to Bet Guvrin-Maresha National Park, which contains ruins that date from the 3rd and 4th century BCE. We visited the Columbarium Cave (a.k.a Pigeon Coop Cave), built in the shape of a double cross. With more than 2,000 niches in it, pigeons were raised for cultic purposes and food prior to the 3rd century BCE. This cave was unreal. From here we visited the Bell Caves, which date to the Byzantine and early Muslim period. Originally, there were 80 bell-shaped pits connected by passageways. Most were quarries measuring up to 40 to 50 feet deep. The caves are now above the ground because of how they’ve been excavated, but at one time they were underground. The quarrying was done through the narrow opening with stone blocks raised and removed from the cave by ropes. Most of the quarrying was done from the 7th to 10th centuries CE. Some of the caves we walked through were absolutely enormous. This park is one of those off the beaten path places but well, well worth the trip.

From the national park, we continued into the Negev and stopped at the Negev Palmach Brigade Memorial. Situated northeast of Be’er Sheva (which until recently was the fourth largest city in Israel), the memorial honors the Jewish soldiers killed while taking Be’er Sheva from the Egyptians in 1948. The views of Be’er Sheva and the Negev from this spot are absolutely beautiful. Jonah was on meltdown by this point though, so our time at the memorial was limited. (Incidentally, Hamas-launched rockets struck as far as the southern part of Be’er Sheva today—the first time the rockets have gotten this far.)

On our way to the memorial, we passed many Bedouin settlements, most unrecognized by the Israeli government. Prior to 1948, roughly 140,000 Bedouin Arabs lived a nomadic, pastoral life in the Negev. The Israeli government has worked to move the Bedouin off the land and into settlements of their own. It doesn’t recognize the Bedouin’s right to use the land, even though they’ve been farming on it for many generations. In the 1980s, recognized villages were established by the government in the Negev. Now, more than 80,000 Bedouin have moved into these developments, which remain incredibly poor, with a terrible lack of facilities, such as proper sewage and roads, and little hope for employment. Our guidebook indicates that there are more than 45 illegal/unrecognized settlements, mostly in the Be’er Sheva region, that have existed for more than 40 years. These have no electricity or water, and the residents must travel long distances for school or health care.

We went next to the kibbutz on which Ofra grew up, Kibbutz Dvir, and where her father and his wife still live. This kibbutz still has the option of eating in the communal dining hall for lunch and two dinners per week, so we enjoyed a yummy meal with the kibbutz residents. We had a lovely visit with Ofra’s dad (Gadalia—a Jewish Cuban who immigrated to Israel in the mid-1950s) and his wife. Su took Jonah to the kibbutz’s playground for a while before joining us back at Gadalia’s house for coffee Cuban style. Then it was onward back to our house in Jerusalem. Jonah and I both took a little snooze on the ride home.

Tonight we had a nice dinner with Jeremy’s graduate students who came back to our place for tea and dessert. And tomorrow we have our last day in Israel before heading to Turkey on Thursday. Sad, sad! We’ll try to make it to the Temple Mount tomorrow morning before packing during naptime and dinner with Su, Ofra, and Micha.

Of course, I can’t sign off without a Jonah update. He’s been missing his Nana and Papa. Last week, he was playing with his giraffe and donkey and getting frustrated. I asked him if he wanted his giraffe, and he told me he didn’t. Then I asked him if he wanted his donkey, and he told me he didn’t. So I asked him what he wanted, and he said, “Nana, Papa.”

I think with so few people around Jonah that he knows and sees regularly, he gets very attached to people with whom we interact even if just briefly or sporadically. Tonight he was very interested in having Jeremy’s graduate students come into the bathroom with him while he took his bath. He put his hand on Avital’s arm and said, “Come in, come in.” We also mentioned at dinner that we had eaten at Masaryk the week before with Anne and Billy, and Jonah said very sadly and longingly, “Billy?!” At dinner, Jonah also was pulling on the apron of one of the servers who he has met only a few times but adores, Michal. Sadly, Jonah had to say bye to her after dinner, along with Noam who has been serving us our morning lattes for much of the month.

Jonah continues to be a very loving little guy. He loves getting a “Jonah sanwish” (Jonah sandwich) with Jeremy on one side of his cheek and me on another giving him kisses. He loves kisses and asks for them, especially when he’s bumped his head or gotten an “owy”. Last week he closed his little finger in Jeremy’s eyeglasses case, and Jonah said, “Ouch, hurt.” He hit his head against the cabinet in the living room the other day and said, “Bonk, bump your head” and came over for a kiss. He was also trying to put the contact lens case back in Jeremy’s glasses case, and when he realized he was putting it in the wrong way said, “Other way” and tried to turn it around. In addition to playing with the eyeglasses case in the morning, a new fun thing he likes to do is put the headphone ear pieces into his ears. He saw the iPod headphones, asked to see them, and knew exactly what he was supposed to do with them. It was so strange. We don’t remember having them on in front of him, so we’re not sure how Jonah knew what to do with them. He still loves looking at one book in the morning that’s for parents to learn about their kids (“Your One Year Old” it’s called). He searches for the few pictures in the book. One has a kid riding a little truck. The other day he said, “Truck, find it.” He is quite regularly putting together this type of sentence or something like “Mommy, eat it” when trying to get me to eat my food.

Two other things that shocked us when we heard them: Jonah was drinking milk the other day, and I asked him, “How’s your milk?” to which he replied, “Good.” And the funniest of all was when we were on the kibbutz walking back to Su and Ofra’s house for lunch. He was so happy to be walking on his own, strolling back to the house. He was in his adorable, giddy, babbling mode, and I had no idea what he was saying. I asked him, “What language are you speaking?” And Jonah replied, “English.” It was totally insane. I just cracked up.

Finally, I think we realized that some of Jonah’s sleep disturbance has been a result of his molars coming in. Last week I decided to stick my finger in his mouth just to see if there were any new teeth pushing against his gums, and much to my great surprise, I found one molar almost completely grown in, two others half way in, and the fourth about ready to pop out of his gum any minute (which it did the other day). What!!?? I thought the teeth were supposed to fill in from the middle out, but apparently not. He only has two teeth on the bottom in the front and now his two molars down there. Very strange.

Okay, well, I guess the next time I write I’ll be sitting in our apartment in Istanbul. My hope for our new place is that it has a good heating system, nice shower, washer (a dryer would be a major plus, but I am definitely not holding my breath on that one), and easy way to Jonah-proof the house with nothing in the drawers. Fingers crossed…

Picture descriptions: Checkpoint into West Bank near Bethlehem; Abu Dis split in two by the separation wall; main intersection in Mea She'arim; Ethiopian Church at monastery; Jonah enjoys yet another playground; aqueduct in the Western Wall excavations; Kotel during Hanukkah (you can see the Hanukkiah near the wall); our neighborhood playground; Jonah roams around Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus; science museum; City of David with city walls dating as far back as 18th century BCE and Silwan in the background; Arab village of Silwan just outside the Old City walls; religious Jews heading into the Old City (view from the wall ramparts near the Jaffa Gate); view into the Old City from near the top of the Damascus Gate; Jeremy and Micha on the Old City walls near the Lions Gate; couldn't resist another gorgeous view of Jerusalem with the Old City in the top left; Jonah enjoys the Noah's Ark animals on Kibbutz Gezer; he also enjoys playing with his little buddy Mayan on the kibbutz; Columbarium Cave at Bet Guvrin-Maresha National Park; Bell Caves in the same national park; Negev Palmach Brigade Memorial near Be'er Sheva; Jonah loving the plants at Bet Guvrin-Maresha National Park.

An emotional return

December 19: Shabbat nears, and I love watching Jerusalem become a different city as sunset approaches. As people headed to work this morning, Jonah and I went to the zoo (where we spent most of our time at the playground, of course, and also playing in the fantastic Noah’s Ark sculpture garden with Antoni Gaudí-like ceramic animal sculptures). A young religious woman helped me navigate the bus system, which charges babies and toddlers if you want to keep them in their stroller and doesn’t if you take them out and fold it. Never heard of such a system before, but I guess it makes sense in some way because a stroller otherwise takes the space of a would-be passenger. On the other hand, what about being family friendly!!?? The bus driver didn’t speak any English, nor did the passengers around me, so I had to fumble my way through, figuring out how much to pay and what he was saying about Jonah’s status as a passenger. And the driver was a crazy one with his turning and swerving, so it was virtually impossible to get Jonah out of the stroller without falling over. Thankfully, this lovely young woman helped make sure Jonah didn’t fly from his seat as I folded the stroller.

So this morning started as a typical morning, although a good share of people don’t work and are instead preparing for the Sabbath—cleaning, cooking, spending time with family. Many kids have no school today. Fridays and Saturdays are the weekend in Israel; Sunday is a regular work day. It’s amazing to be in a country whose culture reflects my own religious traditions and rituals (though to an extreme extent) rather than Christian-based ones (e.g., no work on Sundays, some states that won’t sell alcohol on Sundays, Christmas decorations galore everywhere). Our local bakery is crawling with people buying their challah (as did I before lunch) and other goodies for Shabbat dinner. And now, as I walked to this café/movie theater (one of only two food places that stays open past 2:00 pm on Friday and stays open through Saturday—everything else is closed around us for Shabbat), the streets are packed with cars and people heading home from work to get ready for Shabbat. Dang, that reminds me that I wanted to buy more bananas before everything closed! Oy, this is the hard part…planning for a day and a half, knowing you’ll have no access to stores. Seems like no big deal, but it turns out that it is when you only buy enough groceries for a couple of days at a time because you’re going to the store on foot. Tonight we’ll head to the local progressive synagogue where the Jews actually do recognize that we too are Jews, unlike the religious ones we see all around us. And tomorrow the streets will be empty. No cars. Some people walking on the streets. A quiet time here.

It’s been an amazing two plus weeks. Being in Israel again feels wonderful. Wonderful because I get to spend time with Su again and get to know Ofra. Wonderful because I’ve reconnected with my nephew Micha, who is amazingly like my brother Sam in appearance and in many ways otherwise. Wonderful because it brings back so many memories of meeting and bonding with my dear friend Cori and the trip that brought us to Israel back in 1992 with about thirty other college students from around the U.S. What a different time in my life that was. I’m pretty sure I could still do a summersault then without getting dizzy and without causing a huge tremor in my equilibrium. Su reminded me that the last time I was here was almost half my life ago. How is that possible? I feel like a kid still. Being here also reminds me of friends lost, in particular my friend Marcy who was also on our Israel trip, with whom I lived in college during my senior year (along with Alyce and Courtney), and who drifted away for reasons that still sadden me to this day.

I have a clearer sense of the importance of this region to people other than my own, and so my perspective has changed on what I think needs to happen here both for real peace to be achieved and for reasons of equity and justice. I think the global Jewish sentiment on certain aspects of the unresolved issues standing in the way of peace belies the reality of the situation on the ground here. For example, only 8% of Jerusalem’s Old City is Jewish, and yet so many (most?) Jews around the world would stand on a sword before allowing Jerusalem to become an international city rather than Israel’s capital. For what? To say that it’s ours? Because of our history as it relates to Jerusalem? What about the history of other peoples? Their history may post-date ours, but our history in the United States post-dates the Native Americans and yet we claim it all as ours. The bottom line is that Israel has been embroiled in a bloody war since its independence over sixty years ago. It’s time for its inhabitants to enjoy a more peaceful existence, and it’s clear that there is going to have to be much more compromise on both sides in order for that to happen.

It’s been a long time since I last sat down to write and much has happened. We settled ourselves for a few days before Nana and Papa (i.e., Rhona and Harvey) arrived, spending time getting to know our neighborhood and the areas around ours. Jonah and I spent time at our local café, Masaryk, where Jonah called out “Safta!” to a grandma-looking woman who responded in Hebrew that she wasn’t his safta but someone else’s. It’ll be the only place where Jonah will get such a response, I’m sure. The owner of Masaryk, Lara, has since become my source for all things local. She gave us more ideas of places to go, including Yemin Moshe, the first Jewish settlement outside of the Old City walls from the 1800s. It’s a beautiful area with lovely pedestrian-only streets and houses made of the Jerusalem limestone, which makes the place glow. We enjoyed lunch with Natan, one of Jeremy’s graduate students who is spending the year in Israel (where he’s from).

And the next day our visit with Nana and Papa began after a fun morning with Jonah who was a little chatterbox. He woke up at 6:30 am (phew!), after I explained the night before that we don’t get up until it’s no longer dark outside. As he drinks his milk in our bed in the morning, he likes to play with Jeremy’s glasses case, which is shiny. That morning, Jonah looked at his reflection, said, “Jonah!” and kissed his image. He also said, “Obama – ye he ca!” completely unprompted.

Nana and Papa called from a kind man’s cell phone on the corner of their street and Emek Refaim to figure out how to find our apartment, just two streets away from the apartment they stayed in while in Jerusalem. Jonah was THRILLED to see them, as evidenced by his going berserk, crashing his car into the wall, and jumping up and down on his car, when they arrived. Jeremy and I immediately took the opportunity to leave Jonah with Nana and Papa to run to the bakery and the coffee shop, which incidentally happens to have a great sign of a cigarette with a cross through it and the words “don’t even think about it”. It’s quite reflective of most restaurants around here, none of which seem to permit smoking. This is amazing and such a change from Barcelona where all of the signs read “smoking permitted” in Spanish and Greece where there are no signs but everyone smokes inside restaurants. You just can’t escape it.

That day we took a short taxi ride into the Old City, which was bustling with religious Jews returning from their grocery run in preparation for Shabbat. We checked out the small Armenian Quarter to the extent we were allowed. Much of it is closed except to the two or three thousand Armenians who live within a fairly small compound. We strolled through the Jewish Quarter and went to the Western Wall of the second temple. What a wonderful rush to descend on the plaza with the wall and sparkling gold Dome of the Rock in front of me. Jeremy and Harvey went to the men’s side, while Rhona, Jonah, and I went to the other. We all put prayers in the wall, as is the tradition. We headed toward the Muslim Quarter, which had a highly agitated buzz about it because the Temple Mount with the Dome of the Rock had been closed to men under the age of 45 due to the unrest in Hebron, a city some twenty miles from Jerusalem in the West Bank. A local guy told us there was concern the unrest would come to Jerusalem. As Jeremy said, it seems that closing the dome would be more likely to cause unrest than the opposite. It was a bit of a crazy scene that we tried to unsuccessfully navigate. People were gathered by different entrances to the dome, crammed up to where the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) officers were standing guard with their huge M16s. We tried to squeeze through as even the old ladies pushed, but we had to turn back. It turned out that the American Embassy had told their employees not to travel to Jerusalem that day and to stay off the road between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Surely this was overcautious, but it taught us that we needed to check the news before venturing into the Old City. We headed back to the Jewish Quarter for a delicious falafel lunch before heading back home for Jonah’s nap.

Our post-nap afternoons in Jerusalem are pretty much all the same—a trip to the local playground since it gets dark around 5 pm. If we only ever went to playgrounds, Jonah would be the happiest kid alive.

The next day included a trip to the Israel Museum to see the Dead Sea scrolls and the model city of Jerusalem from the end of the Second Temple era (66 CE). Found in 1947 near the Dead Sea in some caves, the scrolls date back to 132-35 CE and deal with both secular and religious issues. What to say about the scrolls? They’re amazing. A special exhibit at the museum included many documents related to Israel’s 60-year history, including the country’s declaration of independence and a bloody paper with a poem on it that had been in Yitzhak Rabin’s pocket on the day of his assassination. After Jonah’s nap, we walked along the relatively new pedestrian pathway on the outskirts of the central part of Jerusalem (called the Haas Promenade) to see the fabulous views of the Old City. From this vantage point, we saw the wall built to divide Israel from the West Bank. It’s an eyesore, among other things. On our walk to dinner that night we saw a common image—a loving couple sitting together at the bus stop with an M16 snuggled up against them (the guy clearly being in the IDF).

On Sunday we took a fabulous tour of the Old City with a lovely tour guide. We learned a ton about the history of the Old City as well as current statistics and trends. We started in the Armenian Quarter where we were able to see part of a mass in St. James Cathedral—a rare occurrence for visitors. Armenians were the earliest Christians in Jerusalem and apparently have remained neutral in Israel’s politics. We walked through Mount Zion, where we visited the room purported to be the site of the Last Supper where Jesus and his disciples had their final meal together. We strolled through the Jewish Quarter, visiting the four Sephardic synagogues, two of which date back to the sixteenth century CE. According to my guidebook, the synagogues were built deep into the ground in accordance with a law stating that synagogues could not be taller than neighboring buildings. This saved the buildings from destruction during the bombardment of the quarter during Israel’s independence war in 1948. Unfortunately, the synagogues were looted and used as sheep pens by the Jordanians during their rule over Jerusalem.

Remarkably, only 8% of the Old City is Jewish. Because of the cramped living conditions, many people—Jews and others—are trying to move out. I’m not sure if this includes the super duper religious Jews, many of whom don’t work. They’re supported by the government and also U.S.-based organizations (primarily U.S.) that think it worthwhile to pay ultra-Orthodox Jews to pray all day in Israel. As for the government funding, this was a deal struck between these religious Jews and the soon-to-be first Prime Minister of Israel (David Ben-Gurion) during the founding of the country. It started out that only about 500 Jews qualified for such support. Now that number has skyrocketed. Other special treatment the ultra-Orthodox Jews bargained for at the same time keeps them from having to do the otherwise mandatory army service.

We strolled through the Christian Quarter. Only 150,000 people of the 7 million in Israel are Christian. We visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where it is said that Jesus was nailed to the cross, died, and rose from the dead. The church is a very interesting mix of different branches of Christianity. Eight or so Christian factions share ownership of the church, and it is by no means a peaceful partnership, with a brawl between two factions having broken out in the past month or so (thus apparently warranting the positioning of two police officers outside the church semi-permanently). If one clergy member steps foot in another’s section of the church, all hell breaks loose…literally. Because of the discord, the keys to the church are in the possession of a local Muslim family (and have been since the Ottoman period), and it’s their job to unlock the doors each morning and secure them again at night.

We enjoyed lunch before strolling through the Muslim Quarter, where some sixty properties are owned by Jews, marked with an Israeli flag and usually barbed wire. In contrast to the other quarters, the Muslim Quarter feels very alive with many different types of people going about their daily lives. It might have been because we were in this quarter just two days before Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated at the end of the Hajj. People were out en masse, buying gifts and things for their homes. The Damascus Gate was packed, packed, packed. It was tough to get outside the Old City walls through the gate because vendors were stretched out all around it selling their goods, and people were making their way in and out of the city. We eventually made our way out the gate to Zedekiah’s Tunnel, an enormous cave—over 96,000 square feet—created from quarry work believed to be from the time of King Solomon around 10th century BCE. Jeremy, Jonah, and I went with our guide Judy to explore the cave, now open to the public.

December 21: Okay, so it’s two days later, and I realize that the last two weeks feel like they lasted an entire month. So, a different type of entry this will have to be…fewer words describing where we went and more pictures. The words don’t do justice to what we saw, how much we did, and what a fabulous time we had. So it goes.

On Monday the 8th, Su and Ofra came to Jerusalem to give us a tour around Nakhla’ot, 19th century neighborhoods fairly close to the Mahane Yehuda Market, the bustling open market that was the scene of numerous terrorist attacks in the last decade (which we also visited). On Tuesday, Harvey and Rhona went to Yad Vashem in the morning, while Jeremy worked and Jonah and I did our usual café and playground routine. In the afternoon, Jeremy and I went to Yad Vashem, while Harvey and Rhona watched Jonah. Yad Vashem is more than a Holocaust museum. It tells the history of the Nazi rise to power and murder of millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and others. It’s a center that collects information on those who perished for families to learn about their ancestors, among many other things. It memorializes those who died. It honors those who stood up against the terror of the Nazis and their collaborators. Needless to say, it was painful beyond words.

On Wednesday, Harvey, Rhona, Jeremy, Jonah, and I took a day trip to the Dead Sea and Masada. The drive to the Dead Sea revealed the varied landscape of Israel. Immediately upon leaving Jerusalem, the landscape changes dramatically, appearing much more like the desert it is. We stopped at a little tourist shop/café area on our way to Masada, where some local guys had two camels for people to ride on. As we stood there watching the camel, one of the guys motioned for Jonah and me to come over to the camel. I thought he was just going to have us sit on it, but then he had the camel stand up and off we went. Jonah was on the seat right in front of me and kept leaning over to look at the camel. He loved it!

From here we headed toward Masada, a desert mesa rising high above the Dead Sea. The most relevant history of the site for Jews is from the time of the First Revolt when the Jews rose up against the Romans in 66 CE. A group called the Zealots captured Masada, which became a sanctuary for fleeing Jews. After the Romans squashed the revolt elsewhere, they turned to Masada. As the story goes, 967 Jewish men, women, and children fought off 8,000 Romans who built an earthen ramp up to the fortress walls. As the Romans neared the top, the Jews burned all of their houses and possessions to keep the Romans from benefiting from them. Ten men were chosen to kill everyone else. One of the ten killed the other nine before taking his own life. People say the conquest of Masada marked the end of the Jewish presence in the region at the time. Masada is an amazing archaeological site with extensive ruins, some of which have been rebuilt. And with the views of the Dead Sea below, it’s a spectacular place.

From Masada, we headed to the Ein Gedi spa for lunch and to enjoy a dip in the Dead Sea. More than 1,200 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea’s salinity content is 32% as compared to the ocean, which is about 2%. The Dead Sea has receded so much in recent years that there is no sand at the shoreline in many places. Instead, the shoreline ground is made of crystallized salt in sharp points. It was incredibly painful to walk on, but it was so worth it to get in and float in the sea! Jonah didn’t go in because we didn’t have shoes for him and the water was a bit chilly. As someone who can’t otherwise float, I loved it! We drove back to Jerusalem as the sun set, lighting up the sky in beautiful shades of pink, orange, and yellow. Jonah fell asleep as Jeremy sang to him, and Jonah even managed to stay asleep when we had to transfer him to another bus. It was a fabulous day.

On Thursday, Jeremy, Jonah, and I headed to Kibbutz Gezer, while Harvey and Rhona headed to Tel Aviv for the weekend. Su and Ofra live on Gezer and had reserved a little house for the three of us to stay in. That day, Jonah and I went with Su and Ofra to explore Tel Gezer, while Jeremy worked. A “tel” is a mound of earth created by successive civilizations always building on top of a ruined city. Gezer’s location between Yafo/Tel Aviv (a port city) and Jerusalem made it an ideal place for communities to locate themselves. We hiked around and enjoyed a picnic lunch. Jonah particularly liked moving big rocks and ringing the huge wind chimes oddly located on the tel. That night he discovered his latest love, Raul Mouse Kitty. This is a play mouse for cats, which belonged to Su and Ofra’s cat Raul. Jonah saw it and immediately yelled, “Kitty!” He thought it was a little cat. He rubbed it on his face and hugged it. Raul graciously parted ways with it, since it was clear that Jonah loved it quite a bit more than Raul. The name of this little mouse went from “Kitty” to “Mouse Kitty” to “Raul Mouse Kitty”.

On Friday, we headed to an old, secret ammunitions factory that was located under a working kibbutz around the time of Israel’s independence. It operated from 1946 through the independence war in 1948, secretly only prior to the war. Roughly 45 young men and women were recruited to work in the factory, while the majority of people on the kibbutz had no idea such an operation was located right under the laundry and bakery facilities. In the first two years before independence, they manufactured 2.25 million bullets and 2 million during the war. The site is now an interesting museum that tells the story of the factory and kibbutz life during those years.

From here, we went to Ramla to check out a beautiful Greek Orthodox church, the bustling market, and to enjoy a delicious lunch with the best hummus ever. That night we had a delicious Shabbat dinner, which my nephew Micha joined. It was really amazing to see him. He was only 12 the last time I saw him. He just turned 29. When I last saw him, he was a mischievous, funny little guy. Now he’s a tall (in my family, tall), wonderful guy who’s interested in the world and people around him. And he’s still got his Micha smile.

On Saturday, we enjoyed a very mellow Shabbat relaxing on the kibbutz. We’d been up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours on Thursday night because Jonah didn’t want to sleep for some reason, and we were still exhausted. We spent part of the day playing with Jonah’s latest crush, Mayan, an adorable little girl about 7 months his senior. We checked out the dairy operation on the kibbutz and the many, many cows. Jonah was a bit frightened by the cows at first but quickly came to love them, particularly as he saw Mayan feed them. The two of them put piles of hay in front of the cows to assist them in their pursuit of lunch. It was very cute. Then Mayan and Jonah sat down in the hay, and Mayan started tickling Jonah’s face with the long, fuzzy end of a piece of hay, which made Jonah crack up. It was so cute. While we were there, we saw a cow in labor with its baby part way out. Mayan’s dad, Guy, helped the worker who was there deliver the calf, which sadly was born dead. Broke my heart.

We also spent a considerable amount of time that day at the many playgrounds on the kibbutz. Holy cow (huh, funny) is this the promised land of playgrounds. Jonah was in heaven. There are the general playgrounds that are open all the time, and then there are the playgrounds that are for the different age groups in preschool and kindergarten and open up to everyone else after 4 pm (except on Shabbat when they’re open all day because the kids aren’t in school). These play areas had tons of little cars for Jonah to ride on, and he just moved from one to the next. The happiest little guy you ever saw. It used to be that kids on kibbutzim (the plural for “kibbutz”) lived together in houses by these play areas. Micha spent his first three years living in such a house before the kibbutz voted to have kids live with their parents, a trend that was taking hold across Israel on many kibbutzim at the time. Kids used to live with their parents until about six weeks, at which time they started spending the nights in the children’s houses. Moms would either leave bottles for the babies or go to the house to nurse their babies in the middle of the night. Su says Micha was very sad when he had to move home because he’d been so used to sleeping in the same room as his little buddies.

On Sunday we returned to Jerusalem and met Harvey, Rhona, and some cousins on Rhona’s side of the family for a late coffee. It was wonderful to see Rhona connect with cousins whom she’d never met but with whom there was an instant connection. And nice to have more family in Israel!

On Monday, we took a trip up north with Harvey and Rhona for a few days. Other than the fact that Jonah decided he didn’t want to sleep at night (up for over two hours in the middle of the night each night…), it was great to explore another part of Israel. On our way up north, we stopped in Caesarea (on the west coast of the country), which started as a Phoenician settlement in the 3rd or 4th century BCE. It later became the local Roman capital, and the amphitheater was used to torture and execute thousands of Jews during the First Revolt in 66-70 CE. In 1101, the Crusaders captured Caesarea and found what they believed to be the Holy Grail from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. Many other groups inhabited the city over the years, but its ancient past was buried until farmers tilling the land on Kibbutz Sdot Yam discovered bits and pieces of the old city. The current archaeological site is huge with beautiful views of the ocean by which it sits.

From Caesarea, we headed to our lodging destination of Rosh Pina in the Upper Galilee region of Israel. We checked in to our beautiful B&B (complete with Jacuzzis in each room, which Jeremy, Jonah, and I enjoyed together each night at bath time, which Jonah LOVED) in the quaint, little town before strolling around the area.

The next day, after a sleepless night by Jonah, and, therefore, me, we spent the morning in Tsfat (also spelled Safed, Zafed, Tzfat, and Sfat, depending on what I don’t know), a mountain town with a long history of Jewish mysticism and later (and now) nice art galleries. Unlike when I was last in the town, a visitor finds far more religious Jews walking along the cobbled streets. The town boasts several medieval synagogues, a couple of which we visited. Tsfat is the highest town in Israel, some 2,400 feet above sea level. The views from one rooftop we visited were gorgeous. Jonah had a tough morning, given how tired he was. We had a quick lunch and hightailed it back to the B&B, where he, Rhona, and I all took naps.

In the afternoon we visited Capernaum, believed by Christians to be the home base of Jesus during part of his ministry, including the time in which he recruited his first disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew. In the late 19th century, the Franciscans purchased the property with its ruins and restored the ancient synagogue and church situated on the land. The ruins are quite amazing as are the views of the Kinneret (also called the Sea of Galilee). The lake covers an area of roughly 64 square miles, but the water is receding at a most disturbing rate. We were here when the sun set that evening, and the colors in the sky were amazing.

The next day we headed to Akko to explore its old city. While the current residents of the old city are largely Arab, Akko’s history appears to date back to the 19th century BCE (yes, BCE) with references to it in Egyptian sacred texts. The Greek Hercules apparently came to Akko to heal his wounds. It’s a fabulously preserved city, situated on a narrow spit of land with amazing views of the ocean and Haifa in the distance. Although the old city welcomes tourists, the city is not overrun with hotels or galleries. Families still live in the houses, and its souq (marketplace) still caters to local residents. We visited the Al-Jazzar Mosque, which was built in 1781 by the Ottoman Turks. We actually got to look inside the mosque, which was beautiful. We visited the subterranean Crusader city with its vaulted halls, secret passageways, and huge open courtyard. At one time, the halls served as the headquarters of the Knights Hospitallers (remember them from Greece?). I particularly liked the very narrow, underground passageway that wound around under the halls. We found the Ramhal synagogue, which at one time used to be quite large but is now quite tiny. I’m not sure if any Jews currently worship there. We had a lovely lunch on the water, watching the local fishermen and a few boats go by. Then onward back to Jerusalem.

That night we had to say good bye to Rhona and Harvey. We’d had a fabulous time with them and loved being able to enjoy some of our Israel adventure together. We explained to Jonah that Nana and Papa were going back to their home in California, and he seemed quite upset by this. Since he wasn’t going to see them when he woke up (they were catching a 5:30 am flight out), I wanted him to know not to expect them in the morning. Needless to say, he had a hard time going to sleep that night. And the next couple of nights were no walk in the park either. Between taking him to new places to sleep while we’ve been here and Nana and Papa going home, he’s a bit out of sorts right now. Every day he says, “Nana Papa back home,” as if to process this fact and reflect on his sadness about it.

Thursday and Friday were Rachel and Jonah days, while Jeremy worked. On Thursday, Jonah and I took an easy day, spending the morning at our local café and playground. On Friday, we went to the zoo. That night we went to services at a local progressive synagogue called Kehilat Koh Haneshama in the Bak’a neighborhood, about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. It was all in Hebrew, but many of the melodies were similar. It was quite nice to have the opportunity to attend services, since it’s been several months now that we’ve been able to attend our much beloved Beth Am back home.

On Saturday, we spent the day with Su and Ofra in Ein Kerem, a beautiful village of Arab-built stone houses. Almost entirely Jewish now, Ein Kerem is home to several important churches related to John the Baptist and home to Mary’s Spring, where it is said that Mary met Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother. It’s a lovely, quiet area, just outside of the main part of Jerusalem. We visited the spring and a few churches before enjoying a delicious lunch. Our lunches out, by the way, are often the same—pita, hummus, falafel balls or meat wrapped in dough of some sort, and sometimes chicken. Delicious. In the afternoon we met up with Jeremy’s graduate student Natan and had a lovely dinner with his family just down the street from our place.

Today we took the bus to Tel Aviv to spend the day with my nephew Micha. Jonah had gotten a good night sleep, so he did amazingly well today with all of the travel and lack of a real nap. We met Micha at the central bus station in Tel Aviv, which took us about 15 minutes to find our way out of. Really. It was pretty ridiculous. Don’t ever try to meet someone there because it’s a total mystery whether in fact there is a main entrance. Seems to me that there are many entrances, and all of them have security guards checking people’s bags. Same thing at the Jerusalem central bus station with the security.

Once we found each other, we made our way in a taxi to Yafo (Jaffa), a predominantly Arab town in the greater Tel Aviv area. At one time, Yafo served as one of the great ports of the Mediterranean Sea, while Tel Aviv was little more than sand dunes. According to the Torah, Yafo was founded by Noah’s son (as in Noah’s Ark), Japheth, in the aftermath of the famed flood. It became a prominent port during King Solomon’s time before he lost it to the Egyptians in 1468 BCE. Other than a brief time under the Crusaders, the town has been primarily occupied by Muslim Arabs since the 8th century. Now old Yafo boasts lovely galleries, cobbled streets, and nice, grassy areas. We saw fabulous views of the Tel Aviv skyline and waterfront, walked the pathways, and played on the grass with Jonah. Before running off to play, Jonah handed Micha his half eaten bagel, which I took and put in the stroller. Some time later, Jonah returned to Micha with his hand outstretched, expecting his bagel. Good memory. Very cute.

We ventured over to Yafo’s huge flea market where we bought our Hanukkiah (often called a Menorah, which is technically incorrect because the Menorah only has seven branches, not nine like the Hanukkiah—eight plus the shamash used to light the eight candles for Hanukkah) for 15 shekels (less than four dollars) and a little hammer for Jonah for fifty cents.

From Yafo, we took a taxi to Rothschild Boulevard with its tree-lined pedestrian walkway down the middle of the street and checked out some of the Bauhaus architecture before enjoying a long lunch. (The taxi driver wished us a “chag sameach”—happy holiday—for Hanukkah. Quite nice.) From here, we headed in a taxi to the new port of Tel Aviv, which has a long, wood boardwalk by the crashing waves lined with cute cafés, stores, and most importantly, a gelato shop. Jonah snoozed in his stroller for about 30 minutes while we strolled and ate gelato before finding a nice playground on the sand.

It was a fabulous day that ended with a rather lengthy journey home. We left Tel Aviv’s northern bus station around 4 pm and got home at 7 pm, when we should have arrived by 5:30 pm. First the highway home was completely closed because of a burning bus. Still haven’t found out the story about this, but it was obviously not a terrorist attack and no one died since there was nothing about it in the paper or online. Then our bus broke down, so we had to transfer to another bus. Once they opened the freeway, the traffic was insane. It cleared up after they pulled the charred bus remains from the road. Jonah was a total trooper, playful, talking to people on the bus, making the best of our long ride home.

Speaking of Jonah, it’s amazing how quickly things change with him from one entry to the next. There’s so much to say about all of his new development that it’s hard to know where to begin. So I’ll just throw out random stories. Jonah continues to LOVE his little car that he rides around our apartment constantly. He likes putting his stuffed animals on the seat and riding them around. He also likes storing things in his trunk, including his new Raul Mouse Kitty. He put his sippy cup in the trunk one day, turned to us, and said, “Water go?” with his palms facing up, raised above his head. We said, “We don’t know!” So he opened his trunk and said with a big smile, “Here is!” Last week I was rubbing my eyes, and he said, “Tired mommy.” He did that to a stranger the other day too. Starting just the other day, he learned how to take and put back someone’s nose. Jeremy “took” Jonah’s nose (you know the game I’m talking about…), and told Jonah he did so. Jonah said, “Back! Back!” so Jeremy put it back. Jonah now loves “taking” our noses.

Jonah continues to develop an unbelievable vocabulary. He knows the good morning greeting in four languages—English, Spanish, Greek, and Hebrew. In the last couple of weeks, he went from two words to about three or four words in a sentence. “Other one, get it.” “Other one, read it.” “Daddy shloofing (sleeping) too.” When we were changing his diaper on the floor of a restaurant by the front door, he said, “People walking” as passersby strolled along. It was very funny. Other short but often used phrases include: get out, come out, read this, get it, move it, come back, that way, get down, hold it, see it, eat it, “X” go? (as in, “Mommy go?”, “Car go?”), on that, parking car, backing up, church bell ring it, there it is, here go, back on, go car, put it down, sit down, sit there. He also uses “please” fairly often for a guy his age. “Back please” if he wants the back rest on his car put back on. “Help please” if he needs help getting on the car. “Mo please” if he wants more muffin. We love when he says, “Help me, mommy” or “Help me, daddy.” Melts the heart. But his most spoken words continue to be “paygown” for playground and “happin?” for what happened? His own version of “Old McDonald Had a Farm” has been further refined to “E-I-E-I sheep, moo moo ear, moo moo dare, E-I-E-I-O.”

He asks for kisses either when he’s fallen and has an “owwy” or just because he wants some love. That is the best. He can recognize taxis, buses, trucks, and tractors and loves to point them all out constantly. Yesterday he counted to three unprompted. Jeremy began to teach him numbers the other day. Jeremy would say “1”, Jonah would say “2”, Jeremy “3”, and Jonah “4”. And out of the blue, he counted to three on his own.

Tomorrow, Jonah and I are spending the morning with Su and exploring new neighborhoods, while Jeremy works. We have several tours this week scheduled, including the tunnels under the Western Wall of the temple in the Old City, the City of David and neighboring Arab village Silwan, and the ramparts of the Old City walls.

Happy Hanukkah!

Picture descriptions: Jonah rides a turtle at the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem; street in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City; sunset over Dead Sea under a nearly full moon; Muslim woman in Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City (note the Jewish star and menorah above the door from previous Jewish residents); Yemin Moshe; Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City; view of Old City from Haas Promenade; female soldiers; 9th station of Jesus' cross in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; Damascus Gate, exit to the Muslim Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City; Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem; off the road in between Jerusalem and Masada; Masada with the Dead Sea in the background; headed for a dip in the Dead Sea; Jonah's favorite walking game, here on Tel Gezer; Jonah enjoys a hop on a tractor at Kibbutzim Hill, site of the former ammunitions factory under the working kibbutz; Jonah and Mayan feeding the cows on Kibbutz Gezer; Jonah and Mayan playing in the hay on the kibbutz; view of the main part of ancient Caesarea; Ha'Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue in Tsfat in front of the 19th century olive-wood ark; view of Kinneret from Capernaum; Akko's harbor; Mary's Spring with Ofra and Su in Ein Kerem; Jonah and Micha walking the streets of Yafo; Yafo flea market; Tel Aviv port beach boardwalk.